Akurei delivers winter vibes with Golden Vessel on ‘August’

After teasing us for months, Brisbane producer AKUREI has finally dropped his debut EP AUGUST. To celebrate he’s dropped the gorgeous title track, a gentle down-tempo jam featuring the pipes of our fave Golden Vessel.

Dropped earlier in the year, cuts like ‘Photophobia’ and ‘Ride Home’ hinted that Akurei‘s debut would be a sensitive, honest and engaging twist on electronic music. AUGUST is the culmination of a long journey, and according to Akurei, this journey is best expressed through the title track: “Lyrically the song covers how I felt earlier in the year. I’d lost focus and had become unmotivated, and it took me a few months to even understand that. ‘August’ covers the soul searching I did which led to me rediscovering what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be, and trying to find away to do that.”

‘August’ sets a laid-back atmosphere right out the gate with a gently quantised guitar loop of a hopeful melody. Crisp percussion with a booming kick thickens up the low end and gives the track a neat, luxuriating pace that drives the soundscape of ambient pads and sampled vocals that builds. The interplay between Akurei and Golden Vessel‘s vocals is really special here too, showing off the strengths of both artists without either one getting overwhelming. It works so well it makes you wonder why they haven’t teamed up before (and also makes us hope this isn’t the only time it happens!)

It’s fitting for Akurei to drop the title track to spearhead the release of his debut, as it really feels an emotional weight being lifted – a realisation that everything will be ok. This year alone we’ve seen Akurei really thrive and evolve as an artist, and AUGUST is such a tremendous result of that. And it goes without saying; we’re super stoked to see what he comes up with in the next phase of his evolution.